tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527523026218076910.post2794625476115898344..comments2023-03-31T13:13:21.109+01:00Comments on The Anglesey Telegraph: The flags of WalesRhys Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01063335760224613528noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527523026218076910.post-25451942753796256992011-03-29T17:28:47.213+01:002011-03-29T17:28:47.213+01:00Correction: Where the above says (para 3) 'a p...Correction: Where the above says (para 3) 'a political and cultural entity' it should read 'political and economic entity'.<br /><br />A somewhat broad brushed and selective potted history - plenty of room for correction and revision by commentators.Epimetheusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527523026218076910.post-90234467180050942182011-03-29T12:19:14.802+01:002011-03-29T12:19:14.802+01:00Wales was never fully united as a 'Kingdom'...Wales was never fully united as a 'Kingdom'. The invasion of the Plantagenet King Edward the 1st of England united it as a 'principality'.<br /><br />Historically what we now call Wales was roughly on the same footing as the old Saxon kingdoms of Mercia, Wessex, Sussex, Essex and Northumbria, at least until most of them were overrun by the Danes and the Vikings (as was Anglesey) and the Danelaw was instigated in the East of Albion, through treaty with the Saxon Alfred the Great, eventually coming to its zenith under the rule of Canute the Great; and finally losing its domination over the greater extent of the British Isles with the advent of the Normans, who included Southern Wales and the Border Marches in their dominions.<br /><br />So 'Wales' as a political and cultural entity is at heart an Norman-English edifice, culturally held together by a language, (the differences between the northern and southern dialects reflecting to some degree the historical differences between the squabbling Welsh Princes, whose disunity presaged the Edwardian Plantagenet dominance of the late 1200's, itself disrupted by the brief romanticised rebellion of Owain Glyndwr around 1400). <br /><br />The triumph of the Welsh was predominantly in retaining this linguistic individuality in contrast to the Danes, Vikings and Norse kingdoms which were eventually linguistically subsumed into the Anglo-Saxon-French form nowadays called English. (Although the dialect of the Land of the Prince Bishop’s still retains its distinctiveness, as any non-native of Durham and the Tyne-Tees region who has attempted to understand ‘Geordie’ will acknowledge).<br /><br />However, what goes around comes around; With an English overlord having been parachuted into Anglesey in a failed attempt to unify the squabbling indigenous local barons, whose petty power ploys would once again subject the Isle to a centralised authoritarian rule, thereby crushing the aspirations of local freemen of a fairer participative democracy, where their self-determination would rest within their own hands and minds.Epimetheuswritesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527523026218076910.post-84035237232539145302011-03-29T12:14:06.550+01:002011-03-29T12:14:06.550+01:00The world is in chaos and all you can do is talk f...The world is in chaos and all you can do is talk flags. <br /><br />Ridiculous!kpnoreply@blogger.com